Young innovators in Africa are building solutions to the continent’s most pressing health challenges from maternal and newborn health, the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, climate-related health risks such as increased respiratory problems or vector-borne diseases like malaria or dengue and emerging public health threats such as cholera.
In recent years, Africa has seen a steady rise in health innovation activities, with growing numbers of health-tech startups emerging and securing investment, and the sector ranking among the top three for startup funding onthe continent. Yet, despite this momentum, only a small fraction of these innovations successfully transitions frompilot to scale. Young innovators often build solutions in environments constrained by limited access, industry expertise, complex regulatory requirements, limited access to financing and few opportunities for scale.
Health entrepreneurship is a driver of economic opportunity. By supporting youth-led enterprises in the healthsector, initiatives like AfyaFest contribute to the creation of opportunities for young people in Africa.
AfyaFest was bringing together young entrepreneurs, health ecosystem actors, investors, academics, and policymakers over three days, anchored on connecting, co-creating, and learning. At its core, the conveningwas designed to strengthen the pipeline for youth-led health enterprises positioning them to transform primary healthcare systems while expanding economic opportunity across the continent.
At the inagural event in 2025, keynote speaker, Ms Kanini Mutooni, Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation had this to say: – “bold social entrepreneurs can solve the world’s most intractable problems”
Why a Pan-African Convening Matters
AfyaFest 2025 convened 300 participants from 15 African countries, reflecting the recognition that scalable health innovation depends on regional collaboration, knowledge exchange, and a shared understanding of theregulatory requirements which vary from country to country. Fifty- four (54) startups spanning idea to early-stagedevelopment, each tackling critical gaps in primary healthcare delivery.
The convening provided young innovators and attendees a space to share their lived experiences whileexploring opportunities for cross learning and collaboration. The participation witnessed at AfyaFest 2025 signalsthe emergence of a robust pipeline of youth-led health enterprises across the continent, enterprises that, with theright support, could contribute significantly to the innovation landscape in Africa while leading to improved healthservice delivery and also critically providing employment opportunities for Africa’s digital first generation.
Pitch Competitions Provide Platforms for Enterprise’s Exposure
“We saw an opening at the very early stage to intervene with entrepreneurs to come in and say why don’t wefix rather than wait until you are in the acceleration phase. What can we do at the very early stage to ensurethat your business models are viable, the team is well equipped, that your technology makes sense and thatyour solution is applicable to the problem that you have identified. We deploy entrepreneur supportorganisations in the markets in which the impact is
intended. We want to see the applicability of entrepreneurial intervention on the delivery of primary healthcare solutions. “said Desmond Milya- Senior Ecosystem Manager, Bridge for Billions.
The pitch competitions were structured around four thematic priorities,
- Maternal and Child Health
- NCDs and Mental Health
- Climate and Health
- Global Health Security
The selection of these four thematic areas was based on critical global health challenges. Bringing health to thelast mile, “we have been doing a lot of high-level activities; we constantly asked ourselves; how do we build a pipeline of ventures that are now bringing healthcare close to where people live” said Meggie Mwoka, Innovations Manager at Amref Health Africa.
Innovators gained tailored mentorship that was largely from industry experts who were paired with the innovators based on the thematic areas and types of innovation with specific needs that they communicatedwith the mentors. The total grant funding awarded was 25,000$ in cash, the top four ventures each received 6000$ and the venture that was selected via the popular vote was awarded 1000$. They also gained exposureto potential investors, ecosystem visibility and strategic insights to refine their growth pathways.
Relationships That Accelerate Growth
For many participants, the most transformative experience was the engagement with industry experts, investors, and sector leaders.
“A life-changing experience, my mentor helped me really brainstorm deeper on the foundations of my business, he helped me understand the exact problem that we are solving at WeCure pharmacy and who ourtarget market is so that our approach is more targeted. said Dumisani Newton, founder of WeCure pharmacy.
Matched mentorship sessions provided the opportunity to have highly focused discussions on product development, regulatory navigation, market entry strategies, and financing pathways.
Participants explored how harmonized regulatory frameworks and continental initiatives including institutions such as the African Medicines Agency could accelerate the movement of innovations across markets and strengthen the viability of health enterprises.
Immersive Learning
Through masterclasses and ecosystem discussions, AfyaFest also served as a learning platform to surfacestructural gaps within Africa’s health innovation landscape. Insights from participating startups revealed common patterns:
- Strong vision and problem alignment, but limited evidence of traction
- Heavy reliance on grants due to constrained pre-seed capital markets
- Technically strong founding teams with limited commercial or financial expertise
- Solutions grounded in local contexts but lacking clear regional expansion pathways
- Persistent challenges navigating regulatory and compliance frameworks
Rather than framing these as weaknesses, the discussions positioned them as actionable signals indicators of where ecosystem actors, funders, and institutions must focus their support to enable innovation to move from concept to scale.
Afyafest extended learning into practice through field visits and collaborative innovation exercises. Participants visited organizations actively improving health access and community livelihoods in Nairobi, including ventures such as Jacaranda Health, Equity Afia, Prothea and Techsavanna, among others.
These visits allowed innovators to observe operational systems, understand implementation challenges, and engage directly with teams translating innovation into impact.
Complementing the visits were collaborative quests and hackathon-style sessions designed to move ideas from theory into practical solution design. These spaces reinforced the importance of interdisciplinarycollaboration and market-aligned innovation pathways.
“The field visits were such a great experience, it is one thing to hear the testimony of a founder who has built ahealth venture that is transforming the lives of their communities but it is another thing to go out to the businesses and get to experience first-hand the positive effects of these ventures.” Muzalema Mwanza, founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance.
Conclusion
Afyafest 2025 demonstrates that Africa’s health innovation ecosystem is not only vibrant but also deeply intertwined with the continent’s economic future. By convening young entrepreneurs, ecosystem actors, andinvestors from across the region, the event illustrated how youth-led enterprises can simultaneously strengthen primary healthcare systems while generating employment and expanding opportunity.
The engagements underscored the importance of aligning higher education with market realities, institutionalizing mentorship pathways, and creating sustainable financing models that allow innovations tomove beyond pilot stages toward scalable impact. Equally, the discussions reinforced the need for stronger regulatory harmonization and public-private collaboration to ensure that promising solutions can expand acrossborders and serve communities at scale.
Ultimately, AfyaFest reaffirmed that health is not only a social imperative but also an economic sector with thepotential to unlock livelihoods for Africa’s youth. By fostering collaboration, building entrepreneurial capacity, and strengthening the pipeline from innovation to enterprise, AfyaFest continues to position young Africans not merely as beneficiaries of health systems, but as the architects shaping their future.
More is up ahead, Afyafest 2026 is happening this year in July in Dakar Senegal. This is set to be another opportunity for young innovators across Africa to build their networks, gain more access to mentors andopportunities for scale and to impact their communities even more.
Acknowledgement
AfyaFest 2025 was hosted by Amref Health Africa under its Africa Health Collaborative program in partnershipwith the Mastercard Foundation.
About Amref Health Africa
Amref is on a mission to catalyse and drive community-led and people-centered primary health care systems while addressing social determinants of health. Guided by our vision to create lasting health change in Africa,Afyafest was organised by the Digital & Innovations department. The Digital & Innovations Department buildsand scales digital products and health innovations that strengthen health systems, create jobs, and expand access to quality care across Africa. They work as both a venture builder and a product engine for growing health enterprises and creating Amref-owned solutions that can scale sustainably. Their role is to make surethat great health ideas don’t stay as pilots, but become systems, markets, and products that sustain impact at scale.
About the Africa Health Collaborative
The Africa Health Collaborative is a multi-year partnership working to strengthen primary health care systems across Africa through health workforce development, education, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The Health Collaborative brings together the Mastercard Foundation, Amref Health Africa, Addis Ababa University, AfricanLeadership University, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Ashesi University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Moi University, the University of Cape Town, and the University of Toronto.
Together, these partners aim to train 30,000 primary healthcare workers, upskill 60,000 existing healthcare professionals, support 5,000 ventures, and create 20,000 jobs. Addressing Africa’s critical shortage of health workers and unlocking the sector’s economic potential, the initiative contributes to the MastercardFoundation’s Young Africa Works strategy to enable 30 million young people, particularly women, to accessdignified and fulfilling work by 2030.
Learn more https://africahealthcollaborative.org/
About the Mastercard Foundation
The Mastercard Foundation is a registered Canadian charity and one of the largest foundations in the world. It works with visionary organizations to advance education and financial inclusion to enable young people in Africaand Indigenous youth in Canada to access dignified and fulfilling work. Its Young Africa Works strategy aims toenable 30 million young people to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030, while its strategy will support 100,000 Indigenous youth in Canada to complete their education and transition to meaningful work aligned withtheir traditions, values, and aspirations. Established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when itbecame a public company, the Foundation is an independent organization. Its policies, operations, and programdecisions are determined by its Board of Directors and Leadership team.
For more information on the Foundation, please visit www.mastercardfdn.org.